How one should pronounce the eighth letter of the alphabet—H—is one such point of contention. In Australia, the common line of thinking seems to be there are two ways to pronounce it—’aitch’, and ‘haitch’.
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Is H pronounced Haitch or Aitch?
For most English speakers, the name for the letter is pronounced as /eɪtʃ/ and spelled “aitch” or occasionally “eitch”. The pronunciation /heɪtʃ/ and the associated spelling “haitch” is often considered to be h-adding and is considered nonstandard in England.
Is it wrong to say Haitch?
Haitch is logical but not socially acceptable. Again history plays its part. In Australia the haitch pronunciation has been linked with Irish Catholics, the Marist Brothers in particular, although no real research has been done into this and it may well be hearsay or at best circumstantial.
Why do British say H wrong?
In Britain, H owes its name to the Normans, who brought their letter “hache” with them in 1066.Hache is the source of our word “hatchet”: probably because a lower-case H looks a lot like an axe. It has certainly caused a lot of trouble over the years.
Is the letter H silent in English?
H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT. You don’t say it after ‘g’ in GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO, or after ‘r’ in RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM.
How is H pronounced in British English?
So, h pronunciation – you make the h sound with the tongue low in your mouth and the lips apart and the vocal folds approximating to create a hiss-like breath. This is a voiceless sound. This is how you pronounce the letter h.
What is the H sound?
The /h/ sound is called the “voiceless glottal fricative,” which means that the sound is made with the motion of your vocal chords but is not voiced.To produce the /h/ sound, constrict your throat and breathe out through your mouth. The shape of your mouth doesn’t matter as much.
How do Protestants pronounce H?
Ah sure ’tis time for a laugh… Did you know that Protestants and Catholics pronounce the letter “H” differently.Catholics say it like ‘height’ while the Protestants say it like ‘eight’.
Should you use an before H?
For the letter “H”, the pronunciation dictates the indefinite article: Use “a” before words where you pronounce the letter “H” such as “a hat,” “a house” or “a happy cat.” Use “an” before words where you don’t pronounce the letter “H” such as “an herb,” “an hour,” or “an honorable man.”
Why H is silent in honest?
H is silent in many English words, for various reasons.The words hour and honest come from French, and in these cases English took over the French pronunciation as well as the word. Not all such words that have come into English from French still have a silent h, however.
How is H pronounced in Ireland?
The oddly named letter H is usually pronounced ‘aitch’ /eɪtʃ/ in British English, but in Ireland we tend to aspirate it as ‘haitch’ /heɪtʃ/. This haitching is a distinctive feature of Hiberno-English, one that may have originated as an a hypercorrection but is now the norm in most Irish dialects.
Why do British people say Zed?
The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. This gave rise to the Old French “zede”, which resulted in the English “zed” around the 15th century.
Is the H silent in Vehicle?
The H in the word vehicle doesn’t have a strong /h/ sound. Some people may use an /h/ sound, but you really don’t need to. If you say ve➝hicle with a distinct /v/ sound and a long clear vowel in the first syllable, Americans will understand you when you say it! Dropping the /h/ sound is up to you.
Is the H silent in hotel?
In the past, both “an hotel” and “a hotel” were commonly used because English words of French origin beginning with an “H” (such as “hotel”) used to be pronounced without it (so “hotel” would be pronounced just “otel”).There are other Hs that are truly silent (not pronounced at all in any form of the word).
How do you pronounce before H?
“The” and “a” before “H”
Since “h” is not a vowel, we use “the” /ðə/ and “a” before it. But there is a catch. There are many words in English in which ‘h’ at the beginning is silent, and if it is silent, we have to use “thee” and “an”, e.g. “an hour”.
Is H silent in white?
In my region we don’t say “hwite”…. instead the “h” is completely silent. We say, “wite” and the “w” is exactly the same as the “w” sound in “wife”. However, I have heard quite a few people (maybe they were from the Southeastern US) pronounce the “wh” sound as though it were written “hw”.
What word starts with H?
8 letter words that start with H
- habanera.
- habanero.
- habenula.
- habitans.
- habitant.
- habitats.
- habiting.
- habitual.
What Spanish letter has no sound?
The first silent letter in Spanish is the letter H. This letter is always silent unless it is next to the letter C. When you see the letter C next to an H you need to make a ch sound. This sound is almost identical to the ‘ch’ sound in English.
Is H sound a Fricative?
The sound /h/ is a voiceless, glottal, fricative consonant: Your tongue doesn’t need to touch any part of your mouth. Breathe out sharply. A short burst of air should come out of your mouth, leading into the next sound.
How many sounds does letter H have?
2 sounds
Phonics knowledge
The alphabet letter h, by itself, makes 2 sounds. Click the phoneme button in the blue box to find the other alphabet combinations that make the same sound (phoneme).
Why do Catholics pronounce H Haitch?
In Northern Ireland the Catholic population is distinguished from the Protestant by the former saying ‘haitch’ and the latter ‘aitch’. ‘Haitch’ is the way Catholic primary schools teach H in the alphabet and therefore may well have Papal authority as correct!
